Hospital Medicine

Making the transition from outpatient to inpatient has been thankfully only a slightly “bumpy” road, but it is amazing looking back on how our approach to inpatient diabetes care and hyperglycemia on the whole has changed over the past 10 years.

Hospitals and healthcare providers are increasingly using social networking to reach patients.

As you may know, in about 10% of people, the natural history of GERD is progression to Barrett's esophagus, where the normal squamous epithelial lining of the esophagus is displaced by columnar epithelium from the intestine (intestinal metaplasia).

Scientists from the University of Heidelberg Hospital have discovered why thicker blood may simultaneously increase and decrease an individual’s risk for heart attack and stroke.

Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is “relatively common” among patients who have recently been discharged from the hospital and who go into home-based health care, the results of a new study show, and these patients may pose the risk of transmitting the illness to others in the household.

The concept of healthcare reform is pointless unless we address fraud and waste. It matters little whether providers are cognizant of the fact they are defrauding or are just financial dullards.

Vineet Arora, MD, discusses the use of point of care technology with hospitalists.

A cannibalistic process in cells may be the key to prevent harmful bacteria from becoming successful pathogens, and a decrease in this process may also lead to problems in the way that the intestinal tract handles infections.

Health officials overseeing the move for health care information technology (HIT) under government incentives are concerned that breaches of EHR systems are a serious possibility and that preventative measures need to be put in place.

The AMA proposal to ban lab coats is an infection control measure, but will it work?

Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered both a new tool for treating wounds and a new method for delivering the treatment.

Highly active antiretroviral therapy used to treat both HIV and hepatitis B "helps to better control" the HBV infection and may delay or even prevent liver complications, according to new research.

Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology have come up with a way to reactivate latent HIV cells that may lead to the eradication of these cells.

One hospital increases hand washing compliance when hospital "spies" observe and audit.

Ever since the Surgeon General warned of the dangers associated with smoking nearly 50 years ago, special interest groups have pressed Congress to grant the FDA authority to regulate or ban tobacco products.

Hopefully, as healthcare providers, we can recognize that our responsibility extends beyond the inpatient setting, and work together to open communication to ensure smooth transitions of care.

Researchers are finding that more Americans are developing drug-resistant staph infections, from "common, relatively minor foot problems such as cuts, cracks in the skin, athlete's foot and ingrown toenails," as well as "an increase in community-associated MRSA."

A new medication for the maintenance treatment of eczema may "prevent flares and prolong flare-free intervals."

Drs. Thomas Hansen and Craig Rubens talk about their campaign to have patients actively challenge physicians and nurses when it comes to hand hygiene.

Pundits, analysts, and other industry observers have been weighing in with their thoughts on what the President's proposals will call for, what effect they may have on the nation's healthcare system, their chances of being enacted, and how we're going to pay for it all.

A chemical often used to create plastic medical devices has been shown to impair heart function in rats, and may be why side affects like loss of taste and short-term memory problems occur after medical procedures that require blood to be circulated outside of the body in plastic tubing.

The steady growth of hospital medicine has led to a push for specified certification in this field. But who should provide that certification, and is the move in this direction good or bad for hospitalists and hospital medicine?

Are MDNG: Hospitalist readers as excited as I am by Google’s foray into personalized health records (PHRs)?

You may remember the story of Harvard Medical School grad and CIO of CareGroup John Halamka who was an huge advocate of using implantable radio-frequency identification chips to give patients the option of being a walking EMR. Halamka actually had one of these chips implanted in his arm in late 2004, and the PR frenzy began.

Twitter really only wants to know one thing: "What are you doing?"

Check out photos taken at last week's Health 2.0 Conference held in Boston.

Relationships are the foundation of any strong hospital medicine program. For 30 years, TeamHealth has been helping to build innovative hospital communities through its clinical outsourcing services and other solutions, all while focusing on a patient-centric, collaborative model of healthcare delivery.

If anyone understands the state of US hospitals and the role of the hospitalist, it's Adam Singer, MD. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IPC: The Hospitalist Company, which he founded in 1995, and was named Modern Physician's "Physician Entrepreneur of the Year" in October 2008.